Ex-governor arrested in Italy to face charges in U.S.

A former state governor for Mexico's ruling party who faces charges in Mexico and the United States will be prosecuted by U.S. authorities first, the U.S. and Mexican attorneys general said on Wednesday.

Tomas Yarrington, a former governor of Tamaulipas state for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was accused in 2013 by a federal grand jury in Texas of taking millions of dollars in bribes from the Gulf Cartel and other drug traffickers. He was arrested in Italy earlier this month.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Mexican Attorney General Raúl Cervantes Andrade said in a joint statement that the plan to extradite Yarrington to the United States depended on agreement by Italian authorities.

Yarrington is also wanted on trafficking charges in Mexico.

Sessions and Andrade said the United States and Mexico would also cooperate with one another in their prosecutions against Yarrington.

They said his capture was the result of cooperation among Mexican, Italian and U.S. law enforcement officials.